JP2012506098A - Method and system for displaying internet advertising media using ETag - Google Patents

Abstract

  Embodiments of systems and methods for tracking user actions associated with displayed advertisements without cookie technology are presented. The system may generate an ETag in response to a user action such as an advertisement click and send the advertisement medium to the user. The system may determine whether other actions performed by the user have resulted from the advertisement.

Description

  This application claims the benefit of 35 USC $ 119 (e) of US provisional patent application 61 / 105,644 entitled “New Method and System for Displaying Internet Ad Media Using ETags” filed on Oct. 15, 2008. The entire contents of this are incorporated.

  The present invention relates to a method and system for monitoring the delivery of specific advertising campaigns using entity tags (ETags). Etag (entity tag) is an HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) response header sent back by an HTTP / 1.1 compliant web server used to determine content changes at a given URL (uniform resource locator) . The method disclosed herein can be used to automatically recognize repeated visitors to a website. In a related aspect of the ETag method of the present invention, this method can significantly change the analysis of the website. The ETag method allows tracking of user patterns and website traffic patterns. The method of the present invention supports browsers that can be executed from any browser capable device, including but not limited to personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, notebook computers, desktop computers, etc. The present invention relates to a computer-implemented system.

  The present invention relates generally to computer software and systems, and more particularly to a method for providing advertisements over a network, such as the Internet, without using cookie technology.

  The World Wide Web ("Web", "Internet" or "Online") has become universal. A large number of people now access the Internet every day to purchase goods and services and obtain information of interest. For example, suppose an individual wants to purchase a camera over the Internet. The individual accesses the Internet and types in the manufacturer's URL. An individual may access the manufacturer's home page and determine whether the manufacturer has a product that the individual wants to purchase. If an individual does not know which manufacturer sells the camera, the individual may access a website associated with the search engine. An individual enters the general term “camera” into a search engine and attempts to find a manufacturer that sells the camera. Thus, using a search engine to find individual websites that provide a desired product or service often results in a list of hundreds or thousands of search results. The search result is a list of “hits”, where each hit may correspond to a web page related to the search term.

  In addition, search engines may provide company advertisements related to products or services of interest to the individual. In the above example, the search engine may provide an advertisement for the camera. The search engine may charge the company a predetermined fee each time a company advertisement is displayed to a search engine user. Recent trends charge the company each time an advertisement is selected by the user (ie, each time the user clicks on the displayed advertisement).

  However, advertisers recognize that not all clicks on an advertisement will result in the desired user action or “conversion”. A transformation is defined by the advertiser and may represent purchases, registrations, page views, etc. Therefore, the advertiser wants to know the conversion rate related to the advertisement displayed to the user. This allows advertisers to maximize return on investment (ROI) by reducing the fees paid for poorly profitable advertisements.

  Conversion tracking can also be useful for search engine companies. If a search company can accurately track the conversion, the search engine company may be able to change the way it charges the company for targeted advertisements.

  Cookies can be used to track conversions related to user behavior. A cookie is a short piece of data used by a web server to help identify a web user. Cookies can be used on any platform that can use current web browsers. Cookies do not damage files or the system. Cookies are only used to identify web users, but can also be used to track a user's browsing habits.

  If the user is concerned about being identified or web browsing traced through the use of cookies, the user's browser may be configured not to accept cookies. Alternatively, the user can use a cookie blocking program, or can choose to use a browser that automatically blocks cookies or at least third party cookies. It should be noted that blocking all cookies prevents some online services from working. Also, preventing browsers from accepting cookies does not make them anonymous users, but simply makes it difficult to track usage. Third-party ad serving on the Internet has arisen as a way for advertisers to use third parties to develop web-based advertisements and measure and confirm the quantity and quality of advertisements served by websites. Existing “cookie” technology is adapted to allow accurate measurement of unique web page visits and clicks. Cookies are small text files that are generated by browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox, and Safari and then read. The browser sends an existing cookie with the web page request to the web server. If the cookie does not already exist in the web browser, the web server can use the browser's cookie function to set the cookie and store data therein. The web server may store information such as access date, domain name, customer type and activity type.

  When a browser views a web page provided by a web server that uses cookies, one or more cookies are set in the browser's local registry. Due to the design of the underlying web server / browser technology, if the browser returns to a previously viewed web page at a future time, the web server that originally set the cookie automatically gets a copy of the cookie and Can be changed and sent back to the web browser. In addition, if the cookie was originally set by a web server, the server's domain is allowed future access to the cookie even if the browser does not return to the original web server. Alternatively, the cookie can be set and acquired from within the browser via a script and document acquired from the domain of the web server. The contents of the cookie are shared between the browser and the server, and information can be exchanged between them.

  As an illustrative example, assume that an advertiser's website is visited by a web browser “Browser A”. The advertiser is a company called “Company Name”, which has its own domain, web server and website. The domain of Company Name is “companyname.com”. When Browser A browses the Company Name website, the advertiser's web server sets a cookie on Browser A. Browser A leaves the Company Name website and visits other websites, including the web page of the publisher site “http://website2.com”. In general, the publisher's website presents one or more different types of content and provides an advertisement or banner space between them. Advertisers can “rent” banner space from publishers and serve ads directly from their web servers. Alternatively, the third party company “adserver” can be configured to provide advertisements. In this example, the advertiser is configured such that the adserver serves an advertisement for the website. Thus, the publisher's website “www.website2.com” includes banner advertisements provided by adserver. adserver has its own domain (eg, “adserver.com”). If Browser A is configured to accept third-party cookies, the adserver web server can set cookies on Browser A.

  If the browser has a cookie associated with a particular domain, it sends the cookie to a web server in the domain along with any request for web content from the web server. In other words, when the web server sets a cookie in the browser, the browser sends the cookie to the web server unless the browser is specifically configured to block the cookie. When a web server receives a cookie, it becomes available to be written to the server log file. Even if the web server is configured to ignore incoming cookies and not take action based on their contents, they can still receive and log cookies. Thus, both adserver and advertiser web servers have difficulty avoiding their cookies.

  There are two further aspects to be recognized in web page, web server and cookie technology. First, the website listed in the browser's URL address bar may not provide all the web pages displayed by the browser. Instead, the various companies that make up the web page can be served by different web servers. The individual user can point the web browser to the publisher's web page, for example, with the lower frame where the adserver displays the advertisement. Both the issuer's web server and the adserver's web server may set a cookie in the user's browser (unless the user has enabled third-party cookie blocking). Second, a cookie set for a particular web server domain is made available for reading by any web server in the domain or its subdomains. For example, a company has a web server “Alpha” that provides web pages from the domain “company.com” and sets a cookie “A” in the browser of a particular computer user. Next, when the user instructs the browser to the web page provided from the domain “server2.company.com”, the web server “Beta” of the second company provides the second web page. Since the web server Beta has a domain under the domain of the web server Alpha (the domain of the web server Beta is called a subdomain of the domain of the web server Alpha), every time the web server Beta receives a web page request, Receives any cookies previously written by the server Alpha to the requesting browser.

  Delivering advertisements to browsers through an adserver that uses cookies to provide, track and measure purchased advertisements has advantages. Advertisers can calculate and measure advertising performance regardless of the website on which the ad appears, independent review of ad browsing and clicks, web-wide site unrecognizable implementation of all web-based advertising, reports and Use adserver for the features and benefits it provides including measurement. However, the downside to using adserver is that adserver third-party cookies can be blocked by users or even deleted by anti-spyware programs, and the advertising data obtained from adserver cookies is easily available to advertisers Not, the advertiser has to wait until it receives data (eg, log file data) from the adserver, or the adserver has to build a real-time cookie synchronization process. The reverse is also true. The adserver must wait to receive log file data from the advertiser, or target the ad based on a customer variable (eg, customer = high value) that the adserver has recently changed by the advertiser Before we can do it, we have to build a real-time cookie synchronization process. Furthermore, a drawback of many current cookie synchronization processes is that they are unidirectional with respect to shared cookie implementations where data can be shared in both directions.

  While the use of many cookies is relatively harmless, some users pose significant privacy issues because the web server can use cookies to recognize and track the web browsing habits of a particular browser. there's a possibility that. Since data about web browsing habits can be valuable, a person's browsing history can be a product that is bought and sold. Thus, the privacy problem raised by the use of cookies has caused a reaction among people who use the Internet, and has disabled or restricted browser cookie functions for many users. By limiting cookie technology, browsers cannot view and access all the content and features of cookie capable web servers.

  The reaction to the use of cookies has caused the advertising industry to feel further pressure in certain situations to circumvent cookie technology. However, the industry still wants to enjoy the benefits and benefits of using adserver without compromising the additional burden of customer privacy. In addition, many adservers have generated cookies in the past, so if you stop using cookies at this time, you will still receive some previously generated cookies along with any new web page requests. Therefore, reading cannot be avoided. Therefore, in these situations, there is a need for a countermeasure that avoids cookie technology while still allowing advertisers to use and benefit from adserver.

  The countermeasure is the use of ETag. Cookies and ETags have the same accuracy and functionality in tracking users and machines. However, cookies are only user specific, while ETags are machine specific and user specific. For example, two users with different logins on the same computer have separate independent cookies and separate independent caches, and consequently have separate independent ETags. Thus, ETag is more accurate as a measurement. US Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0320225 (Panzer et al.), Which incorporates the entire contents, describes a method for caching and providing content for different types of users based on ETag. US Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0144395 (DeSalvo), which incorporates the entire contents, compares the latest content version of the server with the current content version of the data processing device that requests the content, and Describes how to use an ETag to request content from a server only if the ETag information does not match the latest version of the ETag information.

  The present invention is applicable to systems and methods that allow advertisers to use adservers without relying on cookie technology. The invention also applies to the issuer generating personal functions adapted to return the user without cookie technology. The present invention is also applicable in electronic commerce spaces that generate shopping cart functions. In all cases, this solution solves many limitations in cookie technology (eg, browsers limit the number and size of cookies).

  In order to provide interactive, adaptive and automatic filing of advertising media without relying on cookie technology, the present invention has immediate application at all levels in the Internet advertising, publishing and e-commerce space. The implementations described above and the claims implementation address the aforementioned problem by avoiding cookie blocking programs and anti-cookie browsers by providing adserver with the ability to analyze user habits. Furthermore, advertising cookie data can be collected regardless of whether the user is browsing the publisher's website with the advertisement provided by the adserver or browsing the advertiser's website. This is because cookies can be monitored when a user visits an advertiser's website. By making cookies and advertising data instantly available to both advertisers and adservers in real time, this measure also provides instant and accurate targeting of web ads and is based on the knowledge of either party Enable ad selection processing. Other implementations are also described.

  The implementation presented here follows the principle of the present invention to detect whether a particular user action is performed.

  In accordance with the principles of the present invention, the provided implementation is a method for tracking user actions.

  In another implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method for tracking multiple individual users of a common shared computer through individual operating systems or browser profiles.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, the server includes a memory and a processor. The processor may be configured to receive at least one ETag based on a user action. ETag is relevant to the advertiser. The processor may also be configured to store at least one ETag in memory and receive a conversion indication associated with the advertiser. The processor may be further configured to determine whether the conversion has resulted from an advertisement associated with the advertiser based at least in part on the stored ETag. The ETag may also associate information about the environment that the user viewed in the advertisement (eg, location, category, number of times the advertisement has been viewed, etc.). It may also contain information about a set of all advertisements that this advertiser has shown to the user.

  In a further implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method is provided that enables tracking of user actions. The method may include identifying a user action and generating an ETag in response to the user action. An ETag is associated with an advertiser or publisher. The method may also include sending an ETag to the user and receiving the ETag from the user in response to other actions by the user. The method may include providing conversion tracking options to the advertiser and receiving a selection from the advertiser. The selection may indicate that the advertiser desires to be able to track user actions for at least one account associated with the advertiser. The method may further include making at least one account trackable.

  In yet another implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method for tracking user actions is provided. The method may include providing an advertisement to the user. The method may also include receiving an advertisement click associated with the advertisement, generating an ETag in response to the advertisement click, and sending the ETag to the user. The method may further include receiving information in response to a user action, the information indicating that the user has performed a conversion associated with the advertiser. The method may further include determining whether a conversion has occurred from the advertisement.

  In another implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method is provided that may include selecting an advertisement associated with an advertiser and receiving an ETag in response to the selection. The method may also include performing a conversion associated with the advertiser and determining whether the identifier associated with the ETag matches the identifier of the web page associated with the conversion. The method may further include sending an ETag if the identifiers match.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include frequency capping of ad creative units. Information on how many times the individual user has viewed the production unit is stored and obtained from the ETag, which may restrict the user from appearing excessively in the same unit and avoid burnout of production.

  In other implementations in accordance with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include sequencing (reordering) advertisement production units. Information about which advertisements in an array of production units can be stored in an ETag allows an advertiser to select an array of offers to users based on which users have already seen.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include extending the reach of an advertiser's native user. By tracking who has already seen the ETag production unit, other implementations in accordance with the principles of the present invention may generate unique publication opportunities by not showing the production unit to previously published users. . This is done not only within a single ad network, but throughout the entire Internet space by distributing the principles of the ETag technology of the present invention along with production units so that publications are tracked everywhere where the ads run. May be.

  In another implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an e-commerce shopping cart. ETag can be used in the context of e-commerce shopping carts where cookies are not available because the items in the user's shopping cart persist from session to session. Again, there is no size or number limitation inherent in cookie technology.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include a personalized message that returns the user to the publisher's site or site portion that has been tuned to previous user behavior.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an unlimited number of ETags, not limited to browser cookie limits.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an unlimited size ETag that is not limited to browser cookie limits.

Flowchart illustrating an example of an operation for processing an advertiser banner request

  For a better understanding of the features, objects and processes included in the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

  A cookie is a short piece of data that is sent from a web server to a web browser or vice versa when the browser visits a server site, and is not a code. Cookies are stored on the user's machine, but are not executable programs and cannot do anything to the machine. Whenever a web browser requests a file from the web server that sent the file and cookie, the browser returns a copy of the cookie to the server along with the request. Thus, whenever the user requests another file from the server, the server sends a cookie and the user returns a cookie. In this way, the server knows that the user has visited before and can coordinate access to different pages on that website. For example, Internet shopping sites use cookies to track which shopping basket belongs to a user. The server cannot detect the user's name or email address or information about the user's computer that uses cookies.

  Normally, the cookie is sent back only to the server that originally sent the cookie to the browser, and not sent anywhere else. The server can set the domain attribute of the cookie, which causes any server in the same Internet subdomain as the computer that sent the cookie to send the cookie with the file request. Large sites that use multiple servers can coordinate cookies across all servers. The domain path cannot be set to send cookies to subdomains outside the subdomain where the server resides.

The cookie is sent to the browser by including a line with the following syntax in the header of the HTML document. Note that the header is removed from the document before the browser displays it. Therefore, when the user executes a view (View), view source (View, Source) or view document source (View, Document Source) command in the browser, the user cannot find the header line.
Set-Cookie: NAME = VALUE; expires = DATE; path = PATH; domain = DOMAIN_NAME; secure
Here, the uppercase name is a character string that can be set by the server.

  NAME = VALUE is the name of the cookie and its VALUE. This is data that the server requests for a reply when the browser requests another page.

  DATE is an attribute that determines how long a cookie will persist in the system. If there is no expiration date, the cookie is stored only in memory and expires at the end of the current session (ie, when the web browser is terminated). If the DATE attribute is in the future, the cookie is a persistent cookie and is stored in the file. Only persistent cookies can be used to track users at more than one site. Setting the date of an existing cookie to some date in the past deletes the cookie.

  DOMAIN_NAME includes the address of the server that sent the cookie, and is an attribute that receives a copy of this cookie when the browser requests a file from that server. This is defaulted to the server that set the cookie if it is not explicitly set on the Set-Cookie: line. DOMAIN_NAME may be set to be equal to the subdomain including the server, because multiple servers in the same subdomain receive cookies from the browser. This allows a large website to coordinate multiple servers in the same subdomain. For example, if DOMAIN_NAME is equal to www.mydomain.com, all machines named one.www.mydomain.com, two.www.mydomain.com and three.www.mydomain.com will receive cookies from the browser . The value of DOMAIN_NAME is restricted so that only hosts in the indicated subdomain can set cookies for that subdomain, and the subdomain name must contain at least two or three dots (.) In it Is required. If the top level domain is .COM, .EDU, .NET, .ORG, .GOV, .MIL or .INT, two dots are required. The other domains will need 3 dots. This is to prevent subdomains from being set to something like .COM (a subdomain of all commercial machines).

  PATH is an attribute used to further improve accuracy when cookies are sent back to the server. If the PATH attribute is set, the cookie is returned to the server only if both DOMAIN_NAME and PATH match the requested file. secure is an attribute that specifies that a cookie is sent only when a secure channel (https) is used.

  The server can obtain information acquired from the browser. When the browser sends a request to the server, it includes its IP address, the type of browser used, and the operating system of the user's computer. Normally, this information is logged in the server log file. The cookie sent with the request is included in the cookie and can only add information originally sent to the browser by the same server. Thus, by allowing cookies, there is no further personal information that is explicitly sent to the server.

  Cookies are used by Internet shopping sites to track users and to track what is in the user's shopping cart. When the user first visits the internet shopping site, the user is sent a cookie containing the name (ID number) of the shopping cart. Each time the user selects an item to purchase, the item is added to the shopping cart. When the user finishes shopping, the checkout page lists all items in the shopping cart associated with the cookie. Without a cookie, the user must track all items they intend to purchase and type them into a checkout page. Or you have to buy each item one by one.

  Another way is that whenever the user selects an item to purchase, the shopping site sends a separate cookie containing the item number to the user's browser. The user's browser sends all these cookies with a request for a checkout page. The checkout page uses cookies and makes a list of items you are willing to purchase.

  Another use of cookies is to create a customized home page. A cookie is sent to the user's browser for each item that the user expects to see on the user's special home page. Whenever a user requests a special home page, the user's cookie is sent with a request to inform the server which items to display. Without a cookie, the server requires the user to identify himself each time the user visits a special page, thereby recognizing what items to display. The server must also store special page settings for each visitor.

  One of the lesser uses of cookies and what has led to all the discussion is their use as a device to track browsing and purchasing habits of individual web users. In a single website or group of websites within a single subdomain, cookies can be used to see what web pages the user has visited and how often the user has visited . Since this information is also in the server log file, the use of cookies here does not extend the server's ability to track users, it just facilitates.

  In multiple client sites offered by a single marketing site, cookies can be used to track user browsing habits at all client sites. The way this works is marketing from contracts with multiple client sites to display the advertisement. The client site simply adds an <IMG> tag to the web page to display an image containing the marketing company's advertisement. The tag does not indicate the image file of the client machine, includes the URL of the marketing server's ad server, and includes the URL of the client's page. Therefore, when the user opens a page on the client site, the advertisement that the user sees is actually obtained from the site of the advertising company.

  The advertising company sends a cookie with the advertisement, and the next time the user views any page containing one of the advertisements, the cookie is returned to the advertising company. If many websites support the same advertising company, that company can track the user's browsing habits from page to page within all client sites. You can't see what the user is doing on the page that the user is browsing, but what page the user is browsing, how often the user browses, and only the IP address of the user's computer Recognize This information may be used to infer what the user is interested in and may be used to target advertisements to the user based on these inferences.

  The user can use browser options to prevent any cookies from being sent to the user's system. In Internet Explorer 4.0, select View, Internet Options, click the advanced tab, and click the Disable All Cookie Use option. In Netscape 4.0, select the Edit, Options command, click Advanced, and click the Disable Cookies option. Thereafter, the cookie is not stored in the user's system. If the user wants to use an online service that requires a cookie, the user needs to restore the cookie. Although the user can also select an option to prompt before accepting the cookie, at many sites the user will continually close the warning dialog box.

  If the user's browser is a previous version of Netscape or Internet Explorer, the user can ask for a warning before the browser accepts cookies, but may not be able to block all cookies. In a busy shopping site, acknowledging all warnings can actually be disgusting.

  Several companies offer special software packages that run in the user's web browser to control who can send cookies to the user. In these packages, the user specifies which sites can send cookies to the user and which sites cannot, reducing the need to manually turn cookies on and off.

  Some browsers allow first party cookies, but by default block all third parties. The Safari browser is an example of this.

  A program written in VBScript, JavaScript and Java attached to a web page can read and store cookies in the user's system. These cookie restrictions are the same as the cookies set in the user's browser by the server that sent the program to the user. Cookies generated by these programs can only pass information from one page to the next.

  A first-party ad serving environment where adserver shares the advertiser's domain is provided. Because adserver shares the advertiser's domain, adserver has first-party access to the cookies set by the advertiser and therefore reads the advertiser's cookie data set in the user's browser. Can write. Even if the user has blocked the use of third party cookies through the browser security settings, the adserver can read and write the advertiser's first party cookies without being blocked by the security settings. Further, such first party cookies of the advertiser are unlikely to be considered spyware and are not likely to be blocked or deleted by anti-spyware programs. Thus, an adserver that operates within an advertiser's domain can provide advertising services that are not available to third party adservers.

  In one implementation of the invention, for example, the advertiser provides access to one of the subdomains to the adserver. The adserver can provide web pages and web page components (eg, advertisements) from sub-domains that are allowed access by the advertiser. Thus, the ETag originally written by the advertiser's web server is available to be read and written by the adserver web server. Computer users who change browser options to block third-party ETag settings will not block ETag reading by subdomains. This is because ETag is set in the first party context of the advertiser's site.

  In other implementations, the environment provides advertisements to a web browser, an advertiser website with an associated domain and web server, a first party ETag, an issuer website, and an issuer website. Includes adserver. When the browser accesses the advertiser's website, the associated web server sets the first party ETag in the browser. After some time, when the browser accesses the publisher's website containing the advertisement provided by the adserver, the browser sends the advertiser's ETag to the adserver and requests the advertisement. Since the adserver domain is an advertiser subdomain, the adserver receives the ETag. The adserver reads the ETag and returns the requested content to the browser based on the ETag value.

  In yet other implementations, the use and deployment of web server and ETag technology is based on the real-time sharing and sharing of the advertiser's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system by both the advertiser and adserver through the shared ETag. It is configured so that the data can be fully utilized. Since both the advertiser and adserver read and write the same ETag, the data can be shared in real time. The delay caused by current methods of periodically synchronizing adserver and advertiser data (eg, nighttime ETag synchronization) is eliminated or at least reduced.

  In one implementation, an adserver that provides web advertisements from within an advertiser domain is not limited to providing advertisements that indicate the primary advertiser. Instead, the adserver can serve advertisements from one or more other companies (or force parties). If the force party has an existing relationship with the advertiser (eg, marketing partnership, cross-border sales agreement, joint venture, etc.), both the advertiser and the force party will send force party ads from within the advertiser's subdomain. An additional advantage of providing it can be obtained.

  For example, a system showing first party advertisement provision is taken as an example. In this implementation, the user operates a web browser that includes one or more ETags. Web browsers may be present on any digital media addressable device, including but not limited to personal computers, laptop computers, handheld devices (eg, mobile phones, MP3 players, blackberries, personal digital assistants), etc. Good. The user directs the browser to a website such as “www.website.com” via the browser. The website is provided by an publisher that serves as the overall content of the website.

  There are various ways that an advertiser can provide subdomain access to an adserver. In one implementation, for example, an advertiser uses a DNS server to delegate or redirect a subdomain DNS (domain name service) request to the adserver DNS server. This process is called DNS proxy. This can be realized by generating an NS (Name Server) record of the advertiser's DNS server indicating the DNS server of the adserver. In other implementations, the advertiser can use the address record (or A Record) of the advertiser's DNS server to direct its host name to the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the adserver. In yet other implementations, the adserver hardware and software are located in the same location within the advertiser's infrastructure or on the same network as the advertiser's infrastructure.

  The associated process is shown in FIG. When the adserver DNS server receives the redirect, it receives the logical name of the subdomain sent from the advertiser's DNS server (eg, “ads.companyname.com”) and resolves it to the adserver IP address. For example, “ads.companyname.com” is resolved to an IP address such as “216.150.209.230”. The browser request for the website “ads.companyname.com” goes to the advertiser's DNS server, and then goes to the adserver's DNS server. The DNS server of adserver returns the IP address “216.150.209.230” to the browser. After receiving the associated IP address, the browser sends a request to provide the advertiser's banner.

  The adserver receives the request to provide the advertiser banner and determines the advertisement to display in the banner. For example, the adserver may determine appropriate content for the advertisement banner according to at least one value of ETag received from the browser. If the adserver receives and reads the ETag attached to the browser request, for example, the adserver may recognize the ETag value identified for selection of the advertisement originally placed in the ETag by the advertiser's web server. For example, an advertiser's web server recognizes that a particular customer visiting the advertiser's website is a high-value customer. The web server sets an ETag including the domain “advertiser.com” and data “Target = high_value” in the customer's browser. Advertisers have previously communicated with adservers, and adservers are dealing with advertisers' high value customers whenever adserver encounters ETag data with “Target = high_value”. Communicate the rules of providing appropriate ads to Each time a customer visits the “www.advertiser.com” website, the “Target” ETag value may be reset by the advertiser's web server to reflect the current value state of the customer. For example, a customer may be an “intermediate value” customer when he / she first accesses the advertiser ’s website, but then makes a large purchase. The advertiser's web server may update the customer's status to “high value” and reset the ETag information accordingly. When the customer's browser next interacts with the adserver web server, the updated ETag value immediately causes a “high value” advertisement to be returned from the adserver web server to the customer browser.

  Although adserver serves web ads from within the advertiser's domain, adserver may not be limited to serving ads for the main advertiser. Instead, the adserver can serve advertisements from one or more other companies (or force parties). If the force party has an existing relationship with the advertiser (eg, marketing partnership, cross-border sales agreement, joint venture, etc.), both the advertiser and the force party will send force party ads from within the advertiser's subdomain. An additional advantage of providing it can be obtained.

  If the user clicks or selects an advertisement in the banner, the user's browser is directed to the advertiser's website, which is in the advertiser's domain “advertiser.com”.

  Continuing the above example, the user points the web browser to the web site “http://home.lender.com”. The user completes the “Loan Claim” web form, and the Lender web server sets an ETag on the browser that includes the completed information. Lender has a contract with adserver to offer banner ads on publisher websites “publisher1.com” and “publisher2.com”. Lender and adserver configure these servers and DNS servers according to the implementation described above. The adserver has a domain “ads.lender.com”, which is a subdomain of the domain “lender.com” of the advertiser Lender. Later, the user points the browser to the publisher's website “publisher1.com” containing the Lender banner ad provided by adserver. Since the user's browser already contains an ETag for the domain lender.com that was previously generated by the Lender web server, the ETag is sent by the browser to the adserver web server along with the request for the banner advertisement. The adserver web server reads the ETag and recognizes that the customer has a pending loan application. In response, the adserver web server returns a “Banner 1” advertisement to the web browser.

  Later that same day, the user visits “lender.com” again, this time selecting the 4% rate. This information is added to the “lender.com” ETag by the Lender web server. The user points the browser to the second publisher's website “publisher2.com”. The second publisher's website also includes a Lender banner ad. The browser sends lender.com's ETag to the adserver web server and requests a banner ad. The adserver reads the ETag and recognizes that the rate is 4% set previously by the Lender web server. In response, the adserver web server returns “Banner 4” to the web browser.

  In one particular implementation, the adserver may also support a secure socket layer (SSL) protocol (eg, HTTPS: //) to at least one advertiser. By sharing the advertiser's logical domain, the adserver can use the advertiser's certificate to enable SSL communication. For example, an advertiser purchases an SSL certificate for the subdomain “ads.advertiser.com” and provides the certificate to the adserver to match the subdomain delegated to the adserver with the parent domain of the advertiser. May be.

  Here, another example of the operation behind the method of providing an advertisement is shown. The user points the browser to a website that is hosted by the publisher and includes components such as banner advertisements provided by adserver during operation. For example, a user may input a uniform resource locator (URL) or an Internet protocol address into a browser and point the browser to a desired website. The website includes a link to the publisher for obtaining the content of the website and a link to the adserver for obtaining an advertisement for a component of the website, such as a banner advertisement. When the browser accesses the website, the browser, in operation, sends a content request to the publisher via a link from the content website. In operation, the publisher responds to content requests by providing website content to the browser.

  In operation, the browser also sends an advertisement serving request directed to the advertiser's subdomain via a link to request advertising content. Requests are routed during operation to the DNS server of the advertiser's parent domain. During operation, the DNS server redirects the advertisement provision request to the DNS server of the subdomain associated with the adserver that provides the website banner advertisement. As mentioned above, the infrastructure associated with the subdomain may be co-located with the advertiser's parent domain infrastructure, co-located on the private network, or public network (e.g., It may be accessible via the Internet).

  The advertisement provision request may be redirected by the advertiser's parent domain DNS server in multiple ways. In one implementation, for example, a DNS proxy may be used where the NS (name server) record of the DNS server indicates the DNS server of the adserver. In this manner, the advertisement provision request instructed to the subdomain is received by the advertiser's DNS server and transferred to the adserver via the NS record indicating the DNS server of the adserver. In this implementation, the subdomain “ads.advertiser.com” is assigned to adserver, which assigns the IP address of the system to the name “ads”.

  In other implementations, the DNS server of the parent domain of the advertiser can indicate the address of the server of the adserver, such as a direct instruction to the server's IP (Internet Protocol) address. Use (A Record). Other implementations are possible.

  If the browser contains a copy of one or more ETags related to the advertiser's domain (eg parent domain, subdomain or other domain of the advertiser), the one or more ETags are forwarded to the adserver during operation Is done. One or more ETags may be transferred to the adserver along with the advertisement service request, or may be transferred to the adserver separately from the advertisement service request. The adserver may read and write the ETag as the first party directly related to the ETag. This is because adserver shares the advertiser's domain. Thus, one or more ETags of the browser may be updated directly by the advertiser or adserver without having to synchronize information between the advertiser and adserver.

  During operation, the adserver receives an advertisement provision request from the publisher's website. For example, the adserver may receive the advertisement provision request at the adserver's DNS server after being redirected, as described above with respect to operation. The adserver's DNS server then resolves the subdomain to an address (eg, an IP address) and forwards the advertisement provision request to the server associated with that address. In other implementations, the adserver server may receive directly from the advertiser DNS server via the advertiser DNS server address record (A Record).

  If one or more ETags associated with the advertiser's parent domain are forwarded from the browser, the adserver also receives one or more ETags during operation. As described above, the one or more ETags may be received with the advertisement service request or may be received separately from the advertisement service request.

  The adserver receives the advertisement provision request and one or more ETags (if applicable) and selects an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements. For example, the adserver may select an advertisement based at least in part on an ETag associated with the advertiser's parent domain. However, if no ETag is sent, the adserver may select the advertisement according to other criteria. As described above, the adserver may select advertisements associated with the advertiser and may select advertisements for other parties (ie, force parties). For example, a force party may have a cross-marketing agreement with an advertiser, or simply other parties not related to the advertiser.

  During operation, the adserver transfers the content of the selected advertisement to the browser. In one implementation, for example, content is transferred directly from the adserver to the browser via an open socket.

  In a further implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, the following is an example of a method that allows tracking of user actions. The method includes providing an option for conversion tracking to the advertiser and receiving a selection from the advertiser.

  The conversion tracker may include a front end, an ad mixer, and a log processing module. The front end receives information related to conversion tracking, such as ad click information, and acts as a front end for the conversion tracker to generate an ETag as described in detail below. For example, the front end may set and analyze an HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) ETag related to the behavior of the tracking user. The ad mixer may receive the ad click information and return information about the ad click to the front end. The log processing module may analyze the ad click and conversion information and generate a report based on this information. It will also be appreciated that in alternative implementations, the functions performed by the processing device may be performed by other processing devices. Further, in alternative implementations, a single processing device may perform the function of a conversion tracker.

  As an example of a process for enabling conversion tracking in an implementation in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the following description focuses on one or more servers that provide search functionality and paid advertisements. The techniques described herein are equally applicable to any server that can provide an advertisement that is charged when the advertisement is selected by the user of the client device or presented to the user of the client device, Indeed, it is equally applicable to any system where a specific user action is performed. For example, the techniques described herein can be applied to identify user actions with respect to normal banner advertisements, targeted advertisements based on document or page content or concepts provided to the user, and the like.

  The process may be initiated by the advertiser accessing the server. For example, an advertiser may connect to a server via a network by inputting a URL (uniform resource locator) of a browser executed by the advertiser. Alternatively, the entity associated with the advertiser may connect to the server via a processing device / computer running a normal web browser. The server may provide a user interface (UI) that includes a selection of advertisers to purchase advertisements for keywords that can be entered into a search engine executed by the server. For example, as described above, an advertiser may represent an existing advertiser who has purchased one or more words / terms related to a computer query / search. Purchasing these words / terms allows the advertiser to be prominent when the search query entered by the user includes these words / terms. For example, the advertiser may be conspicuous by a web page advertisement (a banner advertisement, a text advertisement, a pop-up window or a pop-under window, etc.) displayed on the client.

  Suppose an advertiser clicks (ie selects) an advertiser choice. The server may provide a UI that includes buttons / boxes that can be clicked or selected to enable conversion tracking for that advertiser. The conversion tracking option may allow an advertiser to individually enable conversion tracking for each account controlled by a particular advertiser. For example, an advertiser may control multiple accounts. In this case, the advertiser may wish to enable conversion tracking of one or more accounts. Suppose an advertiser has a single account and allows conversion tracking for that account. If conversion tracking is possible, the server will be able to track conversion rates for ad clicks, ad impressions, and other information, as described in detail below. As used herein, “advertising impression” generally refers to the display of the advertisement to the client.

  After conversion tracking is enabled, the server may generate a conversion tracking identifier (ID) associated with each account selected for conversion tracking. A particular conversion tracking ID may be unique for each particular account. In the above example where the advertiser has enabled conversion tracking for a single account, the server may generate a single conversion tracking ID. In some implementations, the conversion tracking ID may correspond to the advertiser's account ID. This conversion tracking ID allows the server to manage privacy for the client. For example, in implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention, the conversion tracking ID is included in the ETag path associated with tracking ad clicks, as described in detail below. This may limit the number of ETags transmitted, thereby reducing privacy issues associated with certain users. In other implementations, a single conversion tracking ID may be used for all advertisers that enable conversion tracking, and a conversion tracking ID may not be used.

  The conversion tracking ID may not affect the level of accuracy with which the report can be generated. For example, even if a single conversion tracking ID is used for all advertisers in the system, the server may still associate a particular advertiser, campaign, production, etc. with the ad click data. This is because the ETag may contain additional information about the ad click, such as advertiser specific information.

  After conversion tracking is enabled and a conversion tracking ID is assigned, the server generates a snippet (eg, one of the software codes that can be provided to the advertiser). In an exemplary implementation in accordance with the present invention, the snippet is used by the client and / or advertiser to provide information (a conversion value associated with the conversion, a label describing the type of conversion (eg, purchase, registration) after the conversion has occurred. 1) HTML / JS (hypertext markup language / JavaScript) code that makes it possible to pass to the server the environment where the advertisement was viewed (for example, the publisher's page, page content, etc.) One may be sufficient. This allows the campaign to be optimized to produce a high level of conversion or click rate. In an exemplary implementation according to the present invention, the snippet may be an image request that is sent to the server after the conversion has occurred. An example of such an HTML snippet may be as follows:

<imgsrc = ”http://www.contextwebadservices.com/pagead/conversion/GHSn-x87543x/conversion?value=123&label=” Purchase ”&format120x60>
In this example, “contextwebadservices.com” represents the server and GHSnx87543x represents the conversion tracking ID assigned to the conversion trackable account associated with the advertiser. As described in detail below, the conversion tracking ID included in the snippet may be used to determine whether the client sends an ETag after conversion has occurred. “Value” and “label” may represent optional parameters that can be dynamically generated and attached to an HTML image request. The value parameter may represent a unit or value defined by the advertiser associated with the conversion specified in some unit (eg, dollars). If a particular advertiser has the same units or values per conversion, the server may include the actual units / values in the snippet. For example, if each conversion is worth $ 10 for the advertiser, the value field may specify a value of $ 10. The label parameter can be assigned to distinguish between the types of transformations that can be used in the final report (eg “Purchase”, “Registration”, “Mailing list sign-up”, “Page view”, “Download”, etc.) It can be a free-form text label. The set of available labels is predefined and any request not included in the predefined list may be marked as UnknownLabelType. The label parameter may also be dynamically set to a special advertiser-specific label for each page. The format parameter defines the size of the converted page image that is returned to the advertiser when conversion is achieved, as will be described in detail below.

  The server may also provide advertisers with JS (Javascript) wrappers and instructions that set the value and label parameters to facilitate pasting the snippet into the appropriate page. For example, the server may provide multiple snippets that can be pasted on multiple advertiser pages. The JS wrapper may facilitate setting the value and label for each snippet based on the specific item / product associated with the transformation. For example, if an advertiser sells only three products with prices of $ 50, $ 100 and $ 200, the server may provide three snippets, and the advertiser sets the value of each snippet to $ 50, $ 100 and It may be set to a value of $ 200. Alternatively, the server may set the value of each snippet and include an appropriate label for each snippet.

  After the server provides the advertiser with the HTML / JS snippet along with instructions related to the snippet, the advertiser may paste the snippet into the appropriate converted page on the advertiser's website. As described above, each advertiser may specify which actions are considered conversions. When the client performs such a predetermined operation, conversion is performed. For example, purchase, registration, page browsing, sign-up, download, etc. may be considered conversion. In each case, the converted page provided by the advertiser may be displayed on the client. For example, in the case of a purchase, the advertiser may provide a web page to the client after the client sends a credit card number to the advertiser to purchase a particular product. When the advertiser receives the credit card information, the purchase is complete and the advertiser may provide a page “Your purchase has been completed. Your total charges are X”. Such a page may represent a page after conversion.

  After the advertiser pastes the HTML / JS snippet on the appropriate converted page, conversion tracking is possible for the advertiser. The conversion tracking process may begin to be transparent with respect to the advertiser.

  The process described below uses an example of conversion tracking associated with an advertisement based on a search query. However, as described above, the techniques described herein may be used in any system in which specific user actions are determined / identified. The process may begin with a client accessing a server over the network and receiving a UI for entering a search query. Assume that a user enters a search query and sends the search query to a server. The server receives the search query, executes the search, and generates a list of search results.

  The server may also identify advertisers based on the search query. For example, the server may store the advertiser information in a memory such as a storage device. The advertiser information may include a database of keywords and corresponding advertisers (and URLs) who have purchased advertisements related to the keywords. When the server receives the query, the server searches the advertiser information to determine whether any advertiser has purchased an advertisement associated with one or more terms in the input query. The server may identify an advertiser associated with the input query and a specific website associated with each advertiser. In one implementation, the server may also generate a redirect URL for each identified advertiser that has enabled conversion tracking, thereby indicating the URL to the server. For example, the server may generate a redirect URL associated with an advertiser capable of conversion tracking as follows.

http://www.contextwebadservices.com/pagead/adclick?
adurl = http: //www.advertiser.com/landingpage&sa=1
This redirect URL may indicate contextwebadservices.com corresponding to the server in this example, and may indicate that the redirect is related to an ad click on a page ad. The redirect URL may also indicate the advertiser's landing page or home page (ie, advertiser.com/landingpage). The presence of sa = 1 in the above exemplary URL may be used by the log processing module to recognize that this URL is related to an ad click. Other information may also be included in the redirect URL.

  After generating a redirect URL for each conversion-trackable advertiser associated with the search query, the server sends the search results and advertisements to the client for display. Assume that the user performs an ad click through the client with an advertisement associated with the conversion-trackable advertiser displayed on the client. For example, assume that a website associated with an advertiser is provided on a web page displayed on the client and the advertiser enables conversion tracking. Further assume that the user clicks on a display advertisement associated with the advertiser via the client.

  After the client selects an advertisement associated with the advertiser, an ad click request is sent to the server as a result of the redirect URL generated during operation. For example, the server may receive an advertisement click HTTP request as follows.

http://www.contextwebadservices.com/pagead/adclick?
url = http: //www.advertiser.com/landingpage&sa=1
As described above, the redirect URL indicates contextwebadservices.com corresponding to the server in this example. The server's conversion tracker receives the ad click request and directs the client to the advertiser's home page or standby page. In this example, the advertiser's home page or standby page may be http://www.advertiser.com/landingpage. In an exemplary implementation, the front end may also store or log the ad click request and forward the ad click request to the ad mixer. In some implementations according to the invention, the front end may also redirect the request back to itself, for example by rewriting sa = 1 to sa = L. This may ensure that clicks by web crawlers are not counted in the number of ad clicks associated with the advertiser. For example, automatic crawling software that does not follow HTTP redirect does not request a URL in which the field sa = 1 is rewritten to sa = L. This prevents spam from automatic crawlers lacking the feature of following this redirect.

  The ad mixer may receive the ad click request and log the ad click request with information included in the ETag for the environment that the user has published for the ad. The ad mixer and / or front end may also analyze the ad click request and determine whether an ETag should be generated in response to the ad click. For example, the ETag may be set for an advertiser capable of conversion tracking. In the above example, because conversion tracking is possible for the advertiser, the ad mixer and / or front end may determine that the ETag should be set. The ad mixer may also identify a conversion tracking ID associated with the advertiser included in the ETag path. In an exemplary implementation according to the present invention, including the conversion tracking ID in the ETag path limits the number of ETags sent to the server, as described in detail below.

  The ad mixer may further identify the approximate time that the ad click occurred and generate an ad click time stamp (TS). The TS may be a globally unique identifier including the time when the advertisement mixer receives the advertisement click request. The TS may also include other information such as server IP address / host processor ID, etc. to ensure that the TS is globally unique. The ad mixer may generate a message that includes a TS, a conversion tracking ID, and a Boolean that indicates whether an ETag should be set. If the ad click was not associated with a conversion-trackable advertiser, the Boolean indicates that no ETag should be generated. The ad mixer may forward this message to the front end.

  The front end receives the message from the ad mixer and determines whether the ETag is set. The ETag may represent a conversion tracking ETag associated with the advertiser's tracking conversion. Assuming that information from the ad mixer indicates that an ETag is set, the front end may generate a conversion tracking ETag. In an exemplary implementation, the conversion tracking ETag may also include a click string (CS). The CS represents a specific ad click or action performed by the user and may be used to track the user action. The conversion tracking ETag may also include an ad click TS associated with the ETag and / or an expiration date. The path of the conversion tracking ETag may also include the conversion tracking ID of the conversion-trackable advertiser. The front end may send an ETag to the client along with a redirect URL indicating the advertiser's site. For example, the server may send an HTTP message including the following information to the client.

Set-ETag: CONVERSION = CS = A6yIzdSDw-4-iX8pj0IqkRPRxTzfA1Kp6FA5xKXgA-CApTBAsmMEABCgpF: TS = 1055812564745609;
path = / pagead / conversion / GHSnx87543 /;
domain = contextwebadservices.com
In the above example, the message indicates that the ETag identified as CONVERSION is set and the ETag contains CS. However, the message does not have an expiration date because ETag does not support cookies-like dates. The ETag must be manually deleted when it expires.

  The above exemplary message also includes the path of the ETag and the domain. The domain contextwebadservices.com corresponds to the server in this example. The ETag path in the above example is pagead / conversion / GHSnx87543 /. The ETag path field GHSnx87543 may represent the advertiser's conversion tracking ID. By including the conversion tracking ID in the ETag path, this ETag is not forwarded to the server when an ad click associated with another advertiser is performed. For example, in one implementation in accordance with the present invention, when the client executes what the particular conversion-trackable advertiser has predefined as a conversion, as described in detail below, the client Send only ETags related to a specific advertiser. If the client clicks on an impression or performs a conversion that is not related to an advertiser that does not allow conversion tracking, the ETag is not sent by the client. Reducing the number of times an ETag is sent reduces the ability of the server to track user activity. This may reduce privacy issues for sensitive users. In other implementations in accordance with the present invention where privacy issues are not as great, the client may send an ETag associated with the conversion-trackable advertiser if no conversion has occurred for the advertiser. In this way, the server may identify a number of operations to be performed by the user.

  The client receives a message indicating that the ETag is set and a redirect URL from the server. The client may store the ETag and use the redirect URL to access the advertiser's website. Thereafter, further user actions (eg, transformations) associated with the advertiser may be sent to the server via the ETag.

  Suppose a client performs an action defined by an advertiser as a conversion of that particular advertiser. In this case, when the client performs conversion, the advertiser downloads the converted page to the client. As described above, the converted page includes a snippet (that is, an HTML image request) provided to the advertiser. As further described above, in one implementation, the snippet may include an image request. The advertiser downloads the converted page to the client. When the client receives and displays the converted page, the client executes the snippet. As described above, the snippet may include a conversion tracking ID associated with the advertiser. When the snippet is executed, the client sends an image request to the server. That is, the client executes the snippet and transmits the converted image request to the server. For example, the converted HTTP image request may include the following information.

http://www.contextwebadservices.com/pagead/conversion/GHSnx87543x/?valu-e=123&label=Purchase&format=120x60
The image request includes information indicating the resulting conversion, conversion tracking ID, value, label, and format for the image.

  The client may also compare the conversion tracking ID (GHSnx87543x in this example) included in the snippet with the conversion tracking ID of the stored ETag path. That is, the client compares the conversion tracking ID included in the snippet of the converted page of the advertiser with the conversion tracking ID related to the ETag received during operation. If the conversion tracking IDs match, the client sends an ETag to the server along with the converted image request. It can be seen that the client may receive multiple ETags from the server when the client performs an ad click associated with various conversion-trackable advertisers in a manner similar to that described above for the advertiser. Therefore, the client may compare the conversion tracking ID of the converted snippet with the conversion tracking ID included in the ETag path for each ETag stored in the client. If the conversion tracking ID of the snippet matches one of the ETag path conversion tracking IDs of the stored ETag, the client sends the ETag to the server. In some implementations according to the invention, the client may also examine the TS (whether TS is included in the ETag) and determine whether to send the ETag to the server. For example, if the client determines that the ETag has expired, the client may not send the ETag. However, as explained below, the server may also examine the TS.

  Assuming that the snippet's conversion tracking ID matches the ETag associated with the advertiser (and optionally the TS indicates that the ETag has not expired), the client The image request is transmitted to the server. When the server receives an image request, the conversion tracker examines the request and determines whether the conversion originated from a paid advertisement. For example, the server may check whether an ETag having a unique conversion tracking ID associated with the advertiser has been received in the image request. The ETag may also include a CS as part of the ETag payload, and the CS may identify specific ad clicks and / or actions performed on the client. The ETag may also include other data that can be used to associate a click event with a conversion, for example, when a click occurs, or when a clicked advertisement is turned on.

  If the conversion tracker does not find that such an ETag is included in the image request, the front end may determine that the conversion did not result from a paid advertisement. When the front end receives such an ETag in an image request, the front end may determine whether the ETag has expired based on the expiration date or TS information included in the ETag. The server may store information related to the conversion, such as value, type, etc. The front end may also return, for example, an image “Thank you for shopping at a Contextweb advertiser” to the client. The client may paste this image on the converted page displayed on the client. By providing this image on the converted page, the client can recognize that some action is being tracked. If the front end determines that the conversion did not result from a paid advertisement or that the ETag associated with the paid advertisement has expired, the server may not store the conversion information. The server may also return a blank image and may not return an image. The client will not receive any further messages on the converted page.

  The front end may also log received image requests in a log (such as a binary format log). The front end may further send a message to the advertising mixer indicating that a conversion has occurred. The ad mixer may also log conversion events in an ad conversion log. The ad conversion log contains records such as multiple conversion events, values associated with each conversion event, labels associated with each conversion event, times associated with each conversion event, search engines or ad networks associated with each conversion event, etc. May be included. The log processing module may use the advertisement conversion data to access the advertisement conversion log and generate a conversion event database. Next, the log processing module may generate a report based on information in the conversion event database.

  For example, the log processing module may generate a conversion rate for a particular advertiser, such as an advertiser. The conversion rate may be based on the number of times a display advertisement associated with an advertiser is clicked at least once divided by the number of conversions that resulted from the advertisement. By generating conversion rates, both advertisers and search engine providers may determine the effectiveness of paid advertisements.

  A more detailed analysis of the advertisement may be performed. For example, the log processing module may determine the total value of all conversions over time for a particular advertiser resulting from an advertisement, a value for each click, etc. The log processing module may also determine the conversion rate based on where the advertisement is displayed. That is, the server may store information indicating whether the paid advertisement is displayed at the top of the web page relative to other positions such as the side of the web page, or the position of the advertisement in the ranked list. Good. The log processing module may analyze the conversion rate with respect to the position of the displayed advertisement.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include frequency capping of ad creative units. Information on how many times the individual user has viewed the production unit is stored and obtained from the ETag, which may restrict the user from appearing excessively in the same unit and avoid burnout of production.

  In other implementations in accordance with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include sequencing (reordering) advertisement production units. Information about which advertisements in an array of production units can be stored in an ETag allows an advertiser to select an array of offers to users based on which users have already seen.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include extending the reach of an advertiser's native user. By tracking who has already seen the ETag production unit, other implementations in accordance with the principles of the present invention may generate unique publication opportunities by not showing the production unit to previously published users. . This is done not only within a single ad network, but throughout the entire Internet space by distributing the principles of the ETag technology of the present invention along with production units so that publications are tracked everywhere where the ads run. May be.

  In another implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an e-commerce shopping cart. ETag can be used in the context of e-commerce shopping carts where cookies are not available because the items in the user's shopping cart persist from session to session. Again, there is no size or number limitation inherent in cookie technology.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention, a method that may include a personalized message that returns the user to the publisher's site or site portion that has been tuned to previous user behavior.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an unlimited number of ETags, not limited to browser cookie limits.

  In other implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, a method that may include an unlimited number of ETags, not limited to browser cookie limits.

  For the hardware and operating environment that can be used to implement the method of the present invention, various computer devices capable of supporting browsers (personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, notebook computers, desktop computers, etc.) Including, but not limited to). Most general purpose computing devices are provided in the form of a computer that can be used, for example, as a workstation running a browser program or as a server running advertiser or adserver software. The computer includes a processing unit, system memory, and a system bus that operably couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit. There may be only one primary processing unit so that the computer's processor includes a single central processing unit (CPU) or multiple processing units (commonly referred to as parallel processing environments). There may be a primary processing unit. The computer may be a normal computer, a distributed computer, or another type of computer, and the present invention is not limited to this. In the illustrated example, an auxiliary processor may be coupled to the system bus to provide auxiliary processing state processing operations. In an alternative implementation, the primary processing unit provides a primary processing mode and an auxiliary processing mode.

  The system bus can be any of several types of buses, including a memory bus or memory controller using any of a variety of bus architectures, a peripheral bus, a switched fabric, a point-to-point connection, and a local bus . System memory may also be referred to simply as memory and includes read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). A basic input / output system (BIOS) that contains basic routines that serve to transfer information between elements in the computer as it is running is stored in ROM. The computer may be a hard disk drive for reading from or writing to a hard disk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk, a CD ROM or other optical media An optical disk drive for reading from or writing to the removable optical disk.

  The hard disk drive, magnetic disk drive, and optical disk drive are connected to the system bus by a hard disk drive interface, a magnetic disk drive interface, and an optical disk drive interface, respectively. The drive and associated computer readable media provide non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer. Any type of computer readable medium capable of storing computer accessible data such as a magnetic cassette, flash memory card, digital video disk, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), etc. is illustrated. May be used in a typical operating environment.

  The operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data may be included, and the plurality of program modules may be stored in a hard disk, magnetic disk, optical disk, ROM, or RAM. A user may enter commands and information into the personal computer through input devices such as a keyboard and pointing device. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, parabolic antenna, scanner, and the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit through a serial port interface coupled to the system bus, but may also be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, game port or USB (universal serial bus). Good. A primary display device, such as a flat panel display or other type of display device, is also connected to the system bus via a display controller, such as a primary display adapter or an auxiliary display adapter. In the illustrated example, the multiplexer switches display signals from individual display controllers. Alternatively, the display controller may include components that provide a high impedance, such as a tri-state buffer, when not signaling to the primary display adapter. In an alternative implementation, a single display controller may be used via the primary processing unit. In addition to the primary display device, computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown) such as speakers and printers.

  A computer may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer. These logical connections are realized by a communication device coupled to a computer or part of a computer. The present invention is not limited to a particular type of communication device. The remote computer may be another computer, server, router, network PC, client, peer device or other communication network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above for the computer. Logical connections include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN). Such networking environments are commonplace in company networks, enterprise-wide computer networks, and the Internet. All of these are network types.

  When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer is connected to the local area network through a network interface or adapter, which is a type of communication device. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer typically includes a modem, a network adapter, a type of communication device, or other type of communication device for establishing communication over a wide area network. A modem, which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus via a serial port interface. In a network connection environment, program modules described with respect to a personal computer or a portion thereof may be stored in a remote memory storage device. The network connections shown are examples and other means and communication devices for establishing communications between computers may be used.

  In an exemplary implementation, the operating system, auxiliary application, primary application such as a browser, advertiser module, adserver module or publisher module, and other modules are embodied by instructions stored in memory and / or storage devices. May be processed by the processing unit. Auxiliary process settings, primary process settings and other data may be stored in memory and / or storage devices and may be stored in a persistent data store.

  The techniques described herein are preferably implemented as logical operations and / or modules of one or more systems. The logical operations may be implemented as a series of processor implementation steps executing on one or more computer systems, or may be implemented as interconnected machine or circuit modules within the one or more computer systems. Similarly, descriptions of various component modules may be provided in terms of operations performed or performed by the modules. The resulting implementation is a matter of choice depending on the performance requirements of the underlying system implementing the described technology. Accordingly, the logical operations making up the embodiments of the technology described herein are referred to variously as operations, steps, objects, or modules. Further, unless expressly stated otherwise, it will be understood that the logical operations may be performed in any order and that a particular order is essential in terms of the claims.

  Accordingly, while the basic novel features of the present invention as applied to several embodiments are shown, described and pointed out, it should be understood that they are in operation in various embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will be appreciated that various omissions, substitutions and changes in form and detail may be made by those skilled in the art. Replacement from one embodiment to another is also fully contemplated and contemplated. The use of the absolute terms “do not”, “do”, “should do”, “do not do”, “must do”, “do not need” is the book disclosed herein. It is not intended to limit the scope of the invention but is merely exemplary. Accordingly, the invention is limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims (6)

A method for tracking user actions,
Identify user actions,
Generating an ETag in response to the user action, wherein the ETag is associated with an advertiser;
Send the ETag to the user;
Receiving the ETag from the user in response to another action by the user. Generating the advertiser conversion rate based at least in part on the number of conversions associated with the advertiser;
The method of claim 1, wherein each conversion is associated with at least one of a purchase operation, a registration operation, a sign-up operation, a page browsing operation, and a download operation. Generating the conversion rate is:
Determining the number of times an advertisement associated with the advertiser is displayed or selected;
Determine the number of conversions that resulted from the displayed advertisement,
The method of claim 2, comprising generating a conversion rate based on the number of times the advertisement is displayed or selected and the number of conversions. A server connected to a distributed computer network to detect user activity;
Means for generating an ETag in response to a user action associated with an advertisement provided to the user;
Means for determining that a conversion has occurred from the advertisement. A method for tracking user actions,
Provide advertisements to users,
Receive an ad click associated with the ad,
Generate an ETag in response to the ad click,
Send the ETag to the user;
Receiving information in response to a user action, the information indicating that the user has performed a conversion associated with the advertiser;
Determining whether the conversion has occurred from the advertisement. Select an ad related to the advertiser,
Receives an ETag in response to the selection,
Performing a conversion associated with the advertiser;
Determining whether an identifier associated with the ETag matches an identifier of a web page associated with the transformation;
Transmitting the ETag if the identifiers match.

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